Odom fought 14 months for eligibility—the NBA can wait - Lamar Odom - Brief Article

Sporting News, The, Nov 9, 1998 by Mike DeCourcy

This is what we know about the Lamar Odom saga, in all its sound-bite, news-brief severity: three high schools in one year, two colleges the next, a challenged ACT score, a mysterious disappearance from first-semester finals and an abortive NBA draft entry. A guy who never finishes anything but a fast break, right?

This is what we didn't know: "He's a tremendous pleasure to coach. He listens to everything we tell him, plays extremely hard. It's a pleasure to have him on the team."

This is Jim Harrick talking, the Rhode Island coach who shall enjoy the services of Odom this season (at least). Others who have dealt with him have said similar things. They have insisted Odom is a nice young man, a victim of his academic indifference and the recruiting machine.

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A 6-10 Wunderkind who dribbles and passes like a point guard, fires jumpers like a shooting guard and attacks the basket like a small forward, Odom will play his first game for the Rams on January 9 against TCU after a 14-month wait.

"Last year took its toll on me, sitting out, and I don't think I'm the same player I was before," says Odom, admitting his primary problems are finding a rhythm and playing defense. "I'm trying to make myself better.... I think I'll be able to hold my own before I really get to stand out."

The time Odom has spent at URI is the longest he has stayed in one place since leaving New York's Christ the King High in the fall of 1996. He signed with UNLV and took a summer class but left when a report raised questions about the big improvement of his college entrance exam score and intrigued the NCAA cops. He enrolled as a "non-matriculating" student at Rhode Island, which wanted proof he was serious about school. Odom nearly blew it by blowing off first-semester finals but made up the work and passed.

"My academic career slacked a little bit, and that left an open door for all the negative publicity," Odom says. "I'd rather go through some adversity now than later on when I'm trying to make it at the next level."

Odom has done more to play in college than many believed he would. We claimed here Kentucky was better off for not landing him in spring 1997. Although we turned out to be right--UK won its second NCAA title in three years without him and Odom wound up in that test-score mess--our reasoning wasn't entirely justified.

Odom's one-year-and-out talk while being recruited hurt him. He still has not disproved that me-first notion but did spend a year at URI without playing. Furthermore, he twice passed on chances to enter the NBA draft, including this past spring.

"He's a college student," Harrick says, "which is what he wanted to be, which is what he passed up two years in the NBA to be.

"He said something very profound to me. He said, `Coach, I don't want to be just passing through the NBA; I want to play for a long time.'"

Profound or not, consider Odom's comment within this context: There are so many players in so great a hurry to reach the pros that they neglect to carry along a pro-level game. Jermaine O'Neal, for instance, or Ricky Davis or Korleone Young. Odom at least has that figured out.

And neither does he appear to be the sort of team-killing agent many get-rich-quick players become. He is being asked to play every perimeter position and probably would spend more time inside if the Rams were not well-stocked there, with Luther Clay, Antonio Reynolds-Dean and David Arigbabu. Odom does not complain.

Much as Louisville lost the vital forces from its 1996-97 Elite Eight team when guards DeJuan Wheat and Alvin Sims completed their careers, URI is in a similar spot after losing underrated guards Tyson Wheeler and Cuttino Mobley. Louisville lost 20 games in '97-98. For the Rams, however, Odom may be versatile enough to diminish the loss. His creative talent could allow URI to get by with solid Preston Murphy, more shooter than creator, at the point early on. When one of the freshmen, Zach Marbury or Tip Vinson, is ready to run the point by mid-December, Odom will be able to relieve some of the pressure on them.

"I really didn't know how he would react," Harrick says. "He wants to be coached. He wants to learn." Odom wants to play, too, and at last will get the chance. Expect him to stick around.

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Odom fought 14 months for eligibility—the NBA can wait - Lamar Odom - Brief Article

Sporting News, The, Nov 9, 1998 by Mike DeCourcy

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